Self-Reliance

Emerson is taking a different view of success than we have used previously. In Ragged Dick and in Stephen Cruz's story, success was defined in terms of career status and earning power. When one gets a good job and earns a lot of money, being able to buy a lot of things, Alger would deem them successful, having achieved the american dream. However, Emerson believes that success comes when one throws off the shackles of society and can become one's own person without conforming to society. Great men are the ones who don't allow others to force ideas upon them, but value what exists in their own mind and attempt to communicate those ideas to others rather than be swallowed by the vast number of "others". When one knows who he is, and recognizes that life is for living, not for conforming to the american standard of success, and values that which he can create by himself, by his own labor, that man is truly successful. He has transcended societal limitations and become his own man, successful in that he only defines success by his own standards and not by societies.